Sometimes a graph says more than a thousand words (25 countries – inequality and mobility)

you thought that inequality was no problem, I think you should take a look at this graph:

The vertical axis shows how much a one percent rise in the income of your father affects your expected income (the higher the number, the lower is the expected social mobility). On the horizontal axis is the Gini coefficient, which is a measure of inequality (the higher the number, the higher is the inequality).

How about this for an explanation? The Scandinavian countries had land reforms at different times in the past 350 years and supported these with some form of land value taxation. Probably the same has happened in Germany. The UK has a concentration of land ownership – aristocratic families and indirectly through the banks, and the rents flow into a few hands, often under the heading of mortgage interest payments. The countries at the extreme end have mineral and other natural resources which also yield rents which are appropriated by a handful.

Norway’s resource rents are collected and put into a national wealth fund.

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